What Could Have Been
by L.D. Anastasia
Summary: They've always been friends. But can fear make them see each other in a new light?
1. Chapter 1

-1"We were going to make the magical ceiling of the Great Hall nonexistent over spring break," Fred said quietly. "But we thought that might interrupt people's studying, so we put it off." Hermione looked up at the twins. To be honest, she was a little surprised by their thoughtfulness. Hermione could see the attraction of getting rid of the ceiling. It would make the outside weather would flow into the heart and soul of the school, and it would be funny because people wouldn't think of the ceiling. Plus, it would create a great deal of trouble for Umbridge. She was shocked that the twins would put off such their grand plan to accommodate studying.

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Late that night, around three o'clock in the morning, Hermione crept out of the girls' dormitory into the common room. She couldn't sleep. She didn't know what she expected to gain by coming down to the common room, but she knew she couldn't stay in bed. Maybe, she thought to herself, I'll relax a little if I sit in front of the room. She came into the room and was surprised to find that it wasn't empty. In front on the dancing flames sat Fred. His eyes were closed, and the fire cast a strange light onto his face. With the shadows and the way he leaned forward, looking intently into the fire, he seemed almost…sad.

Her feet scuffled along the floor and Fed looked up. When he saw who it was, he gave her a small smile and patted the couch next to him. As she sat, he asked, "What are you doing up so late?" Hermione leaned back into the couch and tilted her head to look at him. "Couldn't sleep," she answered softly.

For awhile, they sat in silence, just enjoying the warmth of the fire and quiet comradity. Then Hermione turned to him again said, softly, "Why did you put off pulling the prank? It would have been perfect and it would have caused Umbridge so much trouble." "I put it off because I knew it would disturb you," he answered quietly. "You're Ron's best friend, and like it or not, you're my friend too. Wouldn't want to mess up you're thousands of perfect outstanding O.W.L.S." He reached out and patted her hand. "Plus, it will cause more trouble if we do it during term time. More people will be here, and Umbridge will have to deal with regular business as well as this." Hermione laughed lightly. Fred wondered at the tingle that the sound sent up his back.

"Why are you really awake this late?," he finally asked. "There's just so much on my mind. O.W.L.s and Umbridge and You-Know-Who…it's a wonder I ever get to sleep at all," she replied lightly. "But I'm worried," she continued more seriously. Then she looked at him intently for a moment. "What are _you _doing up so late?" she countered. "Couldn't sleep," he answered, a meaningful twinkle in his eyes.

Hermione sensed that he was hiding something. The twins usually made their plans together, and she could not imagine why he would be up so late unless it was to formulae one of their master plans. But she didn't press him. Instead, she leaned forward and picked up a book at random off the table. She curled up in the corner of the couch and began to read. Fred studied the fire with unusual intensity for several minutes before he finally turned back to her. "Hermione, do you believe in fate?" he asked finally. She looked up, surprised as much by the seriousness in his voice as she was by the question. "I don't know," she replied thoughtfully. "I suppose I believe in fate when I need to." Fred considered her answer for a moment, then said softly, "I suppose I'm up for the same reason you are. Everything seems to have been slipping slowly away from normal ever since we found out that Voldemort had returned, and I guess you're not the only who's worried. I'd like to be able to believe that everything was planned out by some greater power, that everything will turn out the way it should, but I don't think I can."

Hermione was quiet. She was surprised to say the least. This was a side of Fred she had never seen before and knew she unlikely to see again any time in the near future. She wasn't sure how to respond to his sudden confidence in her. Finally, she reached out and took his hand. "I don't know whether there is some master plan or some power to guide us," she began. "But I do know that everything will turn out okay. Even if everything doesn't turn out the way we think it should, it will still be okay." She sighed deeply. "There are things more powerful than pain that help us to heal and to carry on at the darkest of times." "How can you be so sure, so secure when everything could go up in flames at any moment?" Fred asked.

Hermione was silent for a moment, and then she came to a decision. She would tell Fred a secret that she had up until now told only to Harry and Ron. She only hoped that she was making the right decision.


	2. Chapter 2

-1"Fred," she began "there's something about me that you don't know." She paused, unsure of where to begin. "You see, when I was very little, about three or four, my parents moved to America, with me of course. My mother's brother had asked her to come, to help him to care for his family. He had moved there years before, but his wife ad recently died and left him with three young children; two little girls and one boy. But soon after we got there, he began acting strangely. He had always seemed like a loving father, brother, and uncle, but suddenly he was becoming a very different person.

He began coming home in the early hours of the morning, and then not until days after he left would he return again. Finally, when I was six, he left one morning in the middle of January and never returned. My parents wouldn't hear of turning his children over to orphanage, and so they adopted them. It was difficult, for my parents were not rich people, and we soon returned to England with the children to be near my grandparents. It would have been nothing to me, especially being so young, if that I had been the end of it."

She paused again, shaken by the memories that still haunted her. Finally, she took a deep breath and picked up her story. "One day, maybe 3 years after we had returned to England, we received a letter in the mail from my uncle. It didn't tell us much, in fact it was a bunch of nonsense until the end. The end stated that he had discovered something about his late wife-that she had been killed by magic. It was why there had been no signs of murder in the autopsy. She had been killed, murdered by magic. He had met a man in a bar who had told him the whole story, for he was the murderer's best friend, and was just drunk enough to forget about the separation between the worlds. And my uncle was just drunk enough to believe him. When my letter from Hogwarts came a year later, we were sure it was a prank, something sent by my uncle. That was what we believed, until the person that killed my aunt, and, we later found out, my uncle, came after us."


	3. Chapter 3

-1Fred listened to Hermione's tale in complete silence. For once no witty remarks slipped out of his mouth. This was unlike anything he had ever heard before. Why a wizard would focus in on one particular muggle family and hunt them like this was beyond him. He knew, of course, that some witches and wizards hated muggles and hunted them for fun, but he had never heard of a family being singled out as Hermione's had been. Dimly, something else registered.

"If you had your cousins living with you, and your parents had adopted them, how come you always told us you were an only child?" he asked. "Hermione frowned slightly as she answered him. "It seemed safer to conceal the truth, and technically, I am my parents' only child. Besides, by the time I got to Hogwarts, it was enough to true. Only one of my cousins, Olivia, or Livvy, is still alive. The nickname fits, doesn't it? Livvy, as in the only one who lived? That's my cousin, The-Girl-Who-Lived," Hermione finished slightly hysterically. She took a deep breath and composed herself. "I'm sorry. It's just…when I think of the way those people murdered Brian and Katie, it kills me."

he paused, but it was too late to turn back now. "Livvy was there, you know," she said in a slightly horse voice. "It was a man named Nately. He handed Brian a gun, since he wasn't a wizard, and told him to shoot Livvy and Katie. Even at nine, he wouldn't do it. So one of the people there with Nately killed him, with Livvy and Katie watching. He then handed Katie the gun and told her to shoot Livvy, but she refused. So Nately himself turned to Katie and killed her too.

Just when he turned to Livvy to finish her off, about five aurors burst into the room. We're not really sure how many were there. All we know is that four were killed, and one of them managed to get Livvy out before she got caught in the killing too. Livvy was my age, Now, Livvy is no longer Livvy. In fact, you may know her. Have you ever met Lavender Brown?"


	4. Chapter 4

-1Fred's mouth hung open in shock. Finally, he recovered enough to say, "So Lavender Brown is really your cousin, Livvy?" Hermione nodded sadly. "You can never tell anyone this, Fred. You must promise me." She met his eyes and there was a look in them that Fred had never seen before. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it scared him. "I promise. I will tell no one, not even George." Hermione smiled slightly. "George you may tell, if you wish, but you must be sure he will never tell anyone, and that includes you other brothers. The only people that know about this are Harry and Ron." Fred nodded to show his understanding.

"I have to ask you something," he said quietly. "Why are you telling me all this?" Hermione hesitated before answering him. "I'm telling you for a lot of reasons. First, and most importantly, Fred, I am telling you this because I trust. However much you may have gotten on nerves over the years," she said with a smirk, "I know that I can count on you. Secondly, I am telling you because it is time that you knew. I was planning to tell your whole family over Christmas break anyway, so that there is a place outside of my home where I truly belong, with people who I can trust and who trsut me, and who know me completely. And lastly, I'm telling you this because I have reason to believe that Livvy-and I-may both be in danger."

"After all these years of being safe at Hogwarts, how can you possibly be in danger again?" Fred was surprised at how much this scared him. He had loved Hermione and Harry for a long time, practically since they had become friends with Ron, but he sensed that his fear for Hermione was quite different than anything he had felt when he knew the threesome were in danger before.

"My parents sent me a letter. It said that two strangers had come by, posing as door-to-door salesmen. They had been polite but very insistent on coming in, and spent the whole time looking around them. They even asked my parents where their children were." Hermione swallowed a faint laugh as she told Fred the last part, though really it was the biggest clue that the two were not salesmen, but rather wizards. "They were also tipped off by the fact that both were wearing kilts and blouses, in January, with matching heels."

This caused Fred quite a shock. He laughed with her at the hilarious image, but the laughter was short-lived. "How does all this make you believe that everything will turn out all right?" he said finally. "It seems to me that you would be the person with the most reason to have no faith in anything."

Hermione shrugged. "I guess that when I look at my life now, I realize that anything is possible. Look at all that I and my family went through, and at all that Harry has gone through, and here we are, at Hogwarts, with friends we can trust with our lives. No matter what happened in the past, no matter how much danger we are in now, we will always have each other." She met his eyes, and this time he could name the emotion that he saw. Seriousness and love. "That includes you, Fred," she said quietly.

They sat on the couch in a comfortable silence. Hermione rested her head lightly on Fred's shoulder and he wrapped a protective arm around her. They sat there for almost an hour in complete silence, simply enjoying the fire and the comfort of each other's company.

When Fred finally turned to look at her, she was sound asleep. He dropped a kiss on her head and tucked her a little closer. He tried to tell himself that he was just trying to make her feel safe, that after the story she had told him he felt that she needed a little extra protection. But he knew he was just lying to himself.


End file.
